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New York City Mosque Protest

June 13, 2010

Looks like we’ve got quite a recent stirring of irrational Islamophobia in New York City recently. The blog Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion has a good summary: New York Mosque Protest by Richard Bartholemew, June 9, 2010.

Alas, this is happening at a time when I and other members of New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry are extremely busy with personal matters. So, we can’t give this matter the attention it deserves at the present time.

Briefly: I oppose many aspects of traditional Islam, just as I oppose many aspects of traditional Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and other religions, especially their more fanatical and militant forms. However, people of all religions are entitled to certain basic rights, one of which is the right to build houses of worship.

Freaking out about a mosque is just irrational — almost as silly as freaking out about Halal food, as some “anti-jihadists” do. And, since there apparently are a lot of Muslims living and working in lower Manhattan, it only makes sense to build a mosque there.

This being New York City, hopefully this episode will just blow over. As far as I am aware, the protest did not get much mass media coverage.